Second Visit: What Do You Remember?
984 Words
Maxwell stands on the stone steps watching the slender leaves of the sugarcane dance in the wind.
“I have some information for you.”
Maxwell starts; Detective Guber has sidled up to him, breaking his trance.
“I did not find your Marfus…” Detective Guber takes a notepad from his pocket, reads from a page, then slips it back into his pocket. “The other one…the other soldier…she’s on some type of disciplinary suspension.”
Maxwell nods, his eyes still on the pocket where Detective Guber has deposited his notebook. Maxwell is seeing it for the first time. Detective Guber has finally remembered how to investigate and he has finally decided to take this investigation seriously.
“What?” Maxwell asks, finally understanding the position he’s in. He has no contact with the only soldier that showed him compassion - Marfus. He also has no way of contacting the only soldier who has supplied him with information. She may not have been deliberate about it, she may not have done it for his benefit, but because of her, he knows he was at The Inn on his last trip. “Did they tell you where we can find her?”
Detective Guber crunches a pebble with the tip of his shoe, mimicking the motion of putting out a cigarette. “We will leave that for now. We should visit the station. Maybe it will jog your memory.”
***
As soon as they enter the WIC office, it transforms into a scene where friends are reunited; Maxwell, Adam, and Jess, they’re all here. But no Brian and Stephanie? Looking at their faces…his face, he senses grief and worry. This memory he’s stepped into is heavy with worry. Whatever happened to his friends, happened to Brian and Stephanie first. The conversation goes in and out. The memories are his, and they aren’t. He’s drawn into the scene; the memory/image of himself disappears. He’s the one at the desk begging for help to find Brian and Stephanie. Adam mentions a villa…No! The Villa. He’s out of the scene again. The words are garbled. It’s as if he’s hearing them underwater. Adam says something about the old woman; Maxwell loses the images and the sounds, loses the memory altogether.
The room changes; he’s with Detective Guber again. Though they weren't real, though they were products of his mind and memory, Maxwell yearns for the scene he’s just witnessed. If he could only stay there. Real or not, he wants to live in the moment with his friends.
“You remembered something.” Detective Guber taps his pen on the notepad. “What did you see...Uhm...I mean. What do you remember?”
“We were here.” Maxwell swipes his shoulder and forearm across his eyes, straightens his shoulders. “I think we came to report Brian and Stephanie missing.”
“What else?”
“Adam was really scared. Jess is too.”
“And what about you?”
Maxwell sniffles, shrugs. “I think I was worried, but I wasn’t afraid.”
“Why weren’t you afraid?” Detective Guber pauses his frantic scribbling. “Your friends were missing…”
Maxwell shrugs again. “I don’t know. I felt… safe.”
“You were sure whatever had happened to them would not happen to you.”
“Yes-No. I don’t know how to explain it. I was worried about them. Maybe terrified for them. But I wasn’t afraid, not like Adam and Jess.”
“Why were you safe? What saved you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think Adam and Jess were in danger?”
“Yes.” Maxwell blurts out his answer before he considers its implication. Two of his friends were missing, yet he felt safe. The friends that weren’t missing, were in danger. He’s sure of it. Still, he felt safe…protected.
Detective Guber flips his notebook close. “Max…these are the moments that make me doubt.”
Me too. He takes solace in one fact from his memory. “Adam wasn’t afraid of me. He was annoyed with me…possibly angry, but he wasn’t afraid of me.”
“Hmm.”
“I think he was afraid of the old woman at The Villa. He thinks she was guilty of k********g, possibly murder.”
Detective Guber’s eyes rove the room, searching, searching, searching…
“I think we should go to The Villa.”
“No!”
“But she might know something.”
“And she might be dangerous.”
“If it’s the same woman I saw, I’m sure we could take her.”
“No.” Detective Guber takes out his notepad again. “Listen, Maxwell. It is best not to underestimate people when you are investigating a possible murder…murders.”
“She knows something.”
“And we will find out what that is. When we are prepared to meet her.”
“What do we need to prepare for?”
Detective Guber chuckles. “You would be surprised.”
Maxwell slaps the desk. A WIC soldier races from the back. Maxwell’s memory had given him enough, it didn’t occur to him to be annoyed at the lack of assistance.
“Are we okay here?” The soldier speaks to Detective Guber; Detective Guber nods. “Just wrapping up,” he says.
“Any help?” The soldier asks.
“I got what I needed,” Detective Guber responds.
Annoyed by the exchange, Maxwell heads for the door. Detective Guber catches up to him.
“Why didn’t you ask that soldier some questions,” Maxwell asks.
“He does not have any answers.”
“How would you know? You didn’t even try.”
“Trust me, Maxwell. Your memory is of more value to us than the words of any WIC soldier. That’s why I think we should head to the beach.”
- Writer
